Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Wiltshire/Archive 3

Adding new members to the project
I have started Template:WP Wiltshire invite which would bring new members to the project. At this time of speaking, it has been over five months since anybody has joined the project and it would be great to see Wiltshire's scope expanded. Here is a sample of the template:

With this template people could be invited to join the project. I have already done so with a couple of users, but increasing the number of participents would definately strengthen the project altogether. Jaguar (talk) 20:45, 15 April 2011 (UTC)

Thanks for the invite
I think I can be involved. To what extent remain open as yet. I am staff at the Swindon Collection, Central Library, working in our local studies and family history collection. We work with the WSHC and most other local history clubs/socs/institutions so it will be Wilts history, primarily. Nervous about linking to sites I am involved with in case I get deleted again (!) - but suggest someone considers adding our resources to current lists. Will be looking at adding images where needed and adding some more detailed content to articles relating to the Borough of Swindon, all component parishes, adjacent area and key firms, people, events etc. I will try to spell this out of my userpage. I am not an archivist or historian but do have a good working knowledge of and access to key resources. SwindonLocal (talk) 12:56, 11 May 2011 (UTC)


 * Welcome!
 * You wrote: "Nervous about linking to sites I am involved with in case I get deleted again (!) - but suggest someone considers adding our resources to current lists. "
 * Many Wikipedians are understandably nervous of promotional links being added, as it happens every second of the day, but as a group are often open to reasonable discussion of non-promotional high quality links. I raised the matter with the deleting administrator.
 * Also, we made a list of resources for editors to consult at WikiProject_Wiltshire - and I for one would like to see more good research resources, and if needed, some guidance on how to use them, listed there.
 * --Hroðulf (or Hrothulf) (Talk) 15:41, 12 May 2011 (UTC)

Kennet and Avon Canal
The Kennet and Avon Canal article, which is tagged as being of interest to this project, has been a Good Article since 2006. A few editors have recently been expanding and improving this article in an attempt to get it up to Featured Article standard. Could you take a look and help to improve the article?&mdash; Rod talk 13:29, 21 May 2011 (UTC)
 * I have helped by doing a copy edit along with Malleus. Jaguar (talk) 15:58, 16 July 2011 (UTC)

New userbox
Owbist? I was thinking of doing a userbox; I've got some drafts here. Would you have any suggestions or advice? There's a discussion section open on my talk page about it, here. Thanks, Xyl 54 (talk) 01:40, 16 June 2011 (UTC)


 * Thanks for the drafts, Xyl 54. Although I'm not into userboxes, most projects like ours have one. The one I like best is the last, using the image copied above, and I have an idea that we might wish to make other uses of that image. Moonraker (talk) 01:08, 7 July 2011 (UTC)


 * Thanks for the comments; I've got it done, finally. It's here if anyone wants to check it over. Xyl 54 (talk) 14:51, 15 July 2011 (UTC)
 * PS I should probably point out the credit for the image should go to User:Old Moonraker, not me, as he was the one who found it, and fixed it up for use. (snice tho, ennit?) Xyl 54 (talk) 14:54, 15 July 2011 (UTC)

Pageview stats
After a recent request, I added WikiProject Wiltshire to the list of projects to compile monthly pageview stats for. The data is the same used by http://stats.grok.se/en/ but the program is different, and includes the aggregate views from all redirects to each page. The stats are at WikiProject Wiltshire/Popular pages.

The page will be updated monthly with new data. The edits aren't marked as bot edits, so they will show up in watchlists. You can view more results, request a new project be added to the list, or request a configuration change for this project using the toolserver tool. If you have any comments or suggestions, please let me know. Thanks! Mr.Z-man 00:57, 1 July 2011 (UTC)

Bradenstoke - v. - Bradingstoke
Greetings from U.S. Bradenstoke was home to some of my ancestors. Please correct spelling from "Bradingstoke" to Bradenstoke. Thanks. 97.73.64.163 (talk) 22:50, 8 July 2011 (UTC)


 * I found one "Bradingstoke" in List of places in Wiltshire and corrected it. Could you let us know about any others you found, and if you happen to know where our tithe barn is, could we please have it back? Moonraker (talk) 03:30, 9 July 2011 (UTC)

Kennet and Avon Canal at FAC
The Kennet and Avon Canal article has now been under review at Featured article candidates/Kennet and Avon Canal/archive2 for some time but has not received many comments. I am worried that it will be archived soon unless more comments are received, therefore can I ask anyone interested to participate in the review.&mdash; Rod talk 19:21, 19 July 2011 (UTC)
 * I have added my comments in the review but it is not complete yet. I have also done some minor copy editing to the article but I think that there is some more that needs doing. Jaguar (talk) 20:13, 19 July 2011 (UTC)

WikiProject Wiltshire is one year old
It has now been exactly a year since WikiProject Wiltshire was set up. It started on 18:18 PM of the 18th of September (massive coinsidence?). But before that, WikiProject Wiltshire was first mentioned by User:Rodhullandemu in March 2009 with |this message on WP England. There were previous attempts on setting a project for Wiltshire up, but they never happened. The demand for a WikiProject for Wiltshire was quiet, but on 18 September the WikiProject was 'accidently' created when a village called Conholt was created. At first the village was mistakenly in Hampshire, but it was actually in the Wiltshire boundary. It appeared from changing the talk page of Conholt from to , there appeared to be no WikiProject for Wiltshire! And that's how this WikiProject 'accidently' begun.

In the past year we've gained eight (currently have six) members, of which one of them first mentioned the WikiProject over two years ago and I think we have a couple of users that are involved in the project, but not yet added their name to the list. This is not bad considering that we are one of the two most active WikiProjects in South West England (Somerset is the other one). And over one year we have managed to clog up 1,186 articles in which all of them are assessed and rated for importance. We currently have two Featured Articles, Joseph Priestley and Kennet and Avon Canal. We also have four Good Articles; Sheldon Manor, Great Western Railway, Royal Wiltshire Yeomanry and James Blunt. Along with that, we've had 17 DYK's and three Featured Lists.

However, there is still some great amount of work to do. 568 of our articles are stubs; that is at least 40% of the total (however, that is good given the fact that most WikiProjects have more than 50% stubs). 442 articles are Start class and our Top Importance articles are John Aubrey, Avebury, History of Wiltshire, Salisbury, Salisbury Cathedral, Stonehenge, Swindon, Wiltshire and our portal, P:WILTS. A couple of those articles would be good going off to GA Status - Stonehenge and Wiltshire notably. There are few requests for articles on the to-do list and most of the red links can be found at List of places in Wiltshire. However most of the villages are missing coordinates.

The table below show most of our assessed articles over the months. Please note that the table is approximate; there is no way (or any we've heard of) of gathering the data from WP 1.0 bot from previous months. It would have been good to see the full results in the table, but monthly logs of WikiProject Wiltshire were not recorded. The table is better than nothing as it shows how many assessed articles we did have and all the progress we have made.

I really need comments on this please - what can we do next? What about future collaborations? Is there anyway of improving the project? We need comments in order to improve the project. Thanks, Jaguar (talk) 10:55, 18 September 2011 (UTC)
 * I've just found out a way to complete the table but does anyone have any comments to make first? I really need any suggestions/improvements on the project. Jaguar (talk) 16:25, 25 September 2011 (UTC)

Great work and I like your suggestion of a priority: try to improve the quality of top importance articles. This should provide the most benefit to readers.

I think the resources list WikiProject Wiltshire is a noteworthy achievement and it should be made easy for editors to find it. Perhaps you could link it from the talk page banner?

--Hroðulf (or Hrothulf) (Talk) 11:44, 30 September 2011 (UTC)
 * You mean Template:WikiProject Wiltshire that goes onto talk pages? I'm not sure if you can add any external links to that (or if you're allowed) but I will find a way of making that resource list more notable. To be honest, it is a great achievement and a lot of hard work has been put into that; it would be great if any users expanding content about Wiltshire would use that for information. Jaguar (talk) 14:57, 30 September 2011 (UTC)
 * The list of online books could still be greatly improved, as Google Books and other archives expand their collections, I merely copied my own collection of links there a year ago.
 * As a contributor who likes to create new pages, I should welcome more article requests. What we have in the "to do" list so far is a mention of the redlinks in the List of places in Wiltshire. Most of the ones left are very challenging: for instance, Amouracre is the name of a farm in North Bradley and a street in Trowbridge, while Sevington is a small hamlet in Leigh Delamere. Moonraker (talk) 23:39, 12 November 2011 (UTC)

Converting OSGB36 (OS grid refs) to coords on various lists
I have started a discussion about converting the OSGB36 (OS grid refs) on various lists including List of locks on the Kennet and Avon Canal to use Template:Coord, as I think this offers advantages for users worldwide (who may be unfamiliar with the OS system) and the use of Template:GeoGroupTemplate to enable mapping on googlemaps etc. I have been told that a bot could be tasked to do this, however this would be quite a significant change and would not want to do it without consensus. If anyone has any comments could they join the discussion at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Geographical coordinates.&mdash; Rod talk 16:21, 18 December 2011 (UTC)

Lord Lieutenant of Wiltshire
I have started an article on the new Lord Lieutenant of Wiltshire, Sarah Troughton, but so far it is rather thin. Moonraker (talk) 03:48, 7 May 2012 (UTC)

Proposed reinstatement of article on Bristol/Bath to South Coast Study
You are invited to join the discussion at Talk:Bristol/Bath to South Coast Study. -- Trevj (talk) 10:00, 30 May 2013 (UTC)

Bristol Wiki Meetup
You are invited to the Bristol Wiki Meetup which will take place at The Commercial Rooms, 43-45 Corn Street, Bristol BS1 1HT on Sunday 28 July 2013 from 1.00 pm. If you have never been to one, this is an opportunity to meet other Wikipedians in an informal atmosphere for Wiki and non-Wiki related chat and for beer or food if you like. Experienced and new contributors are all welcome. This event is definitely not restricted just to discussion of Bristol topics. Bring your laptop if you like and use the free Wifi or just bring yourself. Even better, bring a friend! Click the link for full details. Looking forward to seeing you. Philafrenzy (talk) 22:43, 1 July 2013 (UTC)

Please help get Wiltshire ready for the start of the Wiki Loves Monuments competition on 1st September
This September the UK is taking part for the first time in the international photography competition Wiki Loves Monuments. Participants will be invited to submit pictures of listed buildings of significant importance (grades I or grade II*), as recorded by English Heritage. The main external website for competitors can be found here, and you can leave a message there if you have queries about competing. Do please join in, and let people in your local area know of this excellent way in which both existing and new Wiki users can help improve the encyclopaedia by contributing photographs of local listed structures. What about organizing a local Wikimeet to attract new people?

In preparation for the start of the competition on 1st September there is still quite a lot of work to do, and we would like to ask for the help of members of this wikiproject. Your local and expert knowledge will be invaluable in ensuring that the lists of eligible buildings are up to date and correctly formatted. If you look at Listed buildings in the United Kingdom you will see how many structures are included. If you then follow the link to Listed buildings in England, you can get to the detailed lists for your area. Alternatively have a look at the WLM planning table. Can you help to ensure that the lists for your area are up to date and well presented?

Some of the lists have been semi-automatically generated from data provided by English Heritage. These use pre formatted templates (eg EH header) which will make it much easier for competition participants to upload their photographs to Commons as an automated process. Please don't change the template structure, as we need to ensure that the templates are properly compatible with the WLM standards that are in use worldwide. The format will allow a bot automatically to collect the information and to put it into the international Monuments Database.

The data still needs the attention of local editors:
 * The "title" may need wikilinking to a suitable article name (whether we currently have that article or not). If there are several buildings in one street all of the wikilinks point at an article about the street; however each entry has a separate line in the list.
 * The "location" column looks and sorts better if just the parish or town is included (& wikilinked).
 * The "date completed" column sometimes has eg "C19" for 19th century, and "C1850" for c. 1850 when the date is uncertain - these need to be corrected manually.
 * The "grid ref & lat & long" (which is occasionally missing) may be given to 8 characters — only 6 (grid ref) or 5 (lat & long) are really needed.
 * Clicking on the "list entry number" should take you to the data sheet for that entry on the English Heritage database which can be checked if needed for details.
 * The image column should have a picture added if we already have a suitable image on Commons. (N.B. if you are going to be taking photos yourself for inclusion in the competition don't upload them until September)
 * References may be added according to normal WP practice.

For further information, please see [http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Wiki_Loves_Monuments_2013_in_the_United_Kingdom Commons:Wiki Loves Monuments 2013 in the United Kingdom. ]

If you have any queries, please post them not below but on the Organizers' help page on Commons.

Anything you can do to help improve these lists will be much appreciated. '''The final deadline for cleaning up is 31st August.

--MichaelMaggs (talk) 16:19, 22 August 2013 (UTC)

Popular pages tool update
As of January, the popular pages tool has moved from the Toolserver to Wikimedia Tool Labs. The code has changed significantly from the Toolserver version, but users should notice few differences. Please take a moment to look over your project's list for any anomalies, such as pages that you expect to see that are missing or pages that seem to have more views than expected. Note that unlike other tools, this tool aggregates all views from redirects, which means it will typically have higher numbers. (For January 2014 specifically, 35 hours of data is missing from the WMF data, which was approximated from other dates. For most articles, this should yield a more accurate number. However, a few articles, like ones featured on the Main Page, may be off).

Web tools, to replace the ones at ~alexz/pop, will become available over the next few weeks at popularpages. All of the historical data (back to July 2009 for some projects) has been copied over. The tool to view historical data is currently partially available (assessment data and a few projects may not be available at the moment). The tool to add new projects to the bot's list is also available now (editing the configuration of current projects coming soon). Unlike the previous tool, all changes will be effective immediately. OAuth is used to authenticate users, allowing only regular users to make changes to prevent abuse. A visible history of configuration additions and changes is coming soon. Once tools become fully available, their toolserver versions will redirect to Labs.

If you have any questions, want to report any bugs, or there are any features you would like to see that aren't currently available on the Toolserver tools, see the updated FAQ or contact me on my talk page. Mr.Z-bot (talk) (for Mr.Z-man ) 05:34, 23 February 2014 (UTC)

Comment on the WikiProject X proposal
Hello there! As you may already know, most WikiProjects here on Wikipedia struggle to stay active after they've been founded. I believe there is a lot of potential for WikiProjects to facilitate collaboration across subject areas, so I have submitted a grant proposal with the Wikimedia Foundation for the "WikiProject X" project. WikiProject X will study what makes WikiProjects succeed in retaining editors and then design a prototype WikiProject system that will recruit contributors to WikiProjects and help them run effectively. Please review the proposal here and leave feedback. If you have any questions, you can ask on the proposal page or leave a message on my talk page. Thank you for your time! (Also, sorry about the posting mistake earlier. If someone already moved my message to the talk page, feel free to remove this posting.) Harej (talk) 22:47, 1 October 2014 (UTC)

Old maps and views of Wiltshire and the West Country
As you might have seen in the Signpost this week, there's currently a drive to go through the million 19th century images released by the British Library last year, and identify all the maps, with a view to their being georeferenced by BL volunteers, and then uploaded to Commons early next year. As of Sunday night, over five thousand new maps have been identified, with 26.5% of the target books looked at -- but see the status page for the latest figures, and more information.

A part that may specifically interest this project is
 * c:Commons:British Library/Mechanical Curator collection/Synoptic index/England - South West

which currently shows pink templated links for 237 Flickr book pages still to be looked at. (Though there are lots of other parts of England, and indeed of the world, still to be looked through as well).

Any help looking through these would be very much appreciated -- as well as the maps (and ground plans) for tagging, you may well also find other interesting or useful non-map views that may be worth considering or uploading for articles on Wiltshire and the West Country.

Thanks, Jheald (talk) 01:03, 3 November 2014 (UTC)

WikiProject X is live!


Hello everyone!

You may have received a message from me earlier asking you to comment on my WikiProject X proposal. The good news is that WikiProject X is now live! In our first phase, we are focusing on research. At this time, we are looking for people to share their experiences with WikiProjects: good, bad, or neutral. We are also looking for WikiProjects that may be interested in trying out new tools and layouts that will make participating easier and projects easier to maintain. If you or your WikiProject are interested, check us out! Note that this is an opt-in program; no WikiProject will be required to change anything against its wishes. Please let me know if you have any questions. Thank you!

Note: To receive additional notifications about WikiProject X on this talk page, please add this page to WikiProject X/Newsletter. Otherwise, this will be the last notification sent about WikiProject X.

Harej (talk) 16:58, 14 January 2015 (UTC)

Swindon
Do any Wikipedians live in Swindon? I'd like for someone to get the UK Space Agency headquarters. Thanks WhisperToMe (talk) 15:32, 11 March 2016 (UTC)

The West Country Challenge
We're planning on running WikiProject England/The West Country Challenge in the summer. It is based on the WikiProject Wales/Awaken the Dragon model, a very successful contest/editathon which saw the improvement and creation of over 1000 articles and 65 Good and Featrued articles. If you'd like to replicate this success for your county, please sign up at the contest page in the participants section. It is intended for both people who might compete in it and for those just interested in independently contributing.♦ Dr. Blofeld  15:16, 7 May 2016 (UTC)

The West Country Challenge
Would you like to win up to £250 in Amazon vouchers for participating in The West Country Challenge?

The The West Country Challenge will take place from 8 to 28 August 2016. The idea ito create and improve articles about Bristol, Somerset, Devon, Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly, Dorset, Wiltshire and Gloucestershire.

The format will be based on Wales's successful Awaken the Dragon which saw over 1000 article improvements and creations and 65 GAs/FAs. As with the Dragon contest, the focus is more on improving core articles and breathing new life into those older stale articles and stubs which might otherwise not get edited in years. All contributions, including new articles, are welcome though.

Work on any of the items at: or other articles relating to the area.
 * Core articles
 * Missing article hotlist
 * Missing photograph hotlist

There will be sub contests focusing on particular areas:
 * Bristol (Day 1-3)
 * Cornwall and Scilly (Day 4-6)
 * Devon (Day 7-9)
 * Dorset (Day 10-12)
 * Gloucestershire (Day 13-15)
 * Somerset (Day 16-18)
 * Wiltshire (Day 19-21)

To sign up or get more information visit the contest pages at WikiProject England/The West Country Challenge.&mdash; Rod talk 15:51, 18 July 2016 (UTC)

2016 Community Wishlist Survey Proposal to Revive Popular Pages
Greetings Members!

This is a one-time-only message to inform you about a technical proposal to revive your Popular Pages list in the 2016 Community Wishlist Survey that I think you may be interested in reviewing and perhaps even voting for:


 * Fix and improve Mr.Z-bot's popular pages report

If the above proposal gets in the Top 10 based on the votes, there is a high likelihood of this bot being restored so your project will again see monthly updates of popular pages.

Further, there are over 260 proposals in all to review and vote for, across many aspects of wikis.

Thank you for your consideration. Please note that voting for proposals continues through December 12, 2016.

Best regards, — Delivered: 18:19, 7 December 2016 (UTC)

Popular pages report
We – Community Tech – are happy to announce that the Popular pages bot is back up-and-running (after a one year hiatus)! You're receiving this message because your WikiProject or task force is signed up to receive the popular pages report. Every month, will post at /Popular pages with a list of the most-viewed pages over the previous month that are within the scope of. We've made some enhancements to the original report. Here's what's new:
 * The pageview data includes both desktop and mobile data.
 * The report will include a link to the pageviews tool for each article, to dig deeper into any surprises or anomalies.
 * The report will include the total pageviews for the entire project (including redirects).

We're grateful to for his original, and we wish his bot a happy robot retirement. Just as before, we hope the popular pages reports will aid you in understanding the reach of, and what articles may be deserving of more attention. If you have any questions or concerns please contact us at m:User talk:Community Tech bot.

Warm regards, the Community Tech Team 17:16, 17 May 2017 (UTC)

WikiProject collaboration notice from the Portals WikiProject
The reason I am contacting you is because there are one or more portals that fall under this subject, and the Portals WikiProject is currently undertaking a major drive to automate portals that may affect them.

Portals are being redesigned.

The new design features are being applied to existing portals.

At present, we are gearing up for a maintenance pass of portals in which the introduction section will be upgraded to no longer need a subpage. In place of static copied and pasted excerpts will be self-updating excerpts displayed through selective transclusion, using the template Transclude lead excerpt.

The discussion about this can be found here.

Maintainers of specific portals are encouraged to sign up as project members here, noting the portals they maintain, so that those portals are skipped by the maintenance pass. Currently, we are interested in upgrading neglected and abandoned portals. There will be opportunity for maintained portals to opt-in later, or the portal maintainers can handle upgrading (the portals they maintain) personally at any time.

Background
On April 8th, 2018, an RfC ("Request for comment") proposal was made to eliminate all portals and the portal namespace. On April 17th, the Portals WikiProject was rebooted to handle the revitalization of the portal system. On May 12th, the RfC was closed with the result to keep portals, by a margin of about 2 to 1 in favor of keeping portals.

There's an article in the current edition of the Signpost interviewing project members about the RfC and the Portals WikiProject.

Since the reboot, the Portals WikiProject has been busy building tools and components to upgrade portals.

So far, 84 editors have joined.

If you would like to keep abreast of what is happening with portals, see the newsletter archive.

If you have any questions about what is happening with portals or the Portals WikiProject, please post them on the WikiProject's talk page.

Thank you. &mdash; The Transhumanist  08:00, 30 May 2018 (UTC)

Bristol meetup
I am organising a meetup in Bristol for this summer - provisionally Saturday 1 September 2018, and you are invited (everyone is welcome). For details see Meetup/Bristol/3 to join the discussion, including expressing preferences about dates and venues, see the talk page at m:Talk:Meetup/Bristol/3. Thryduulf (talk) 18:38, 30 June 2018 (UTC)

Merge Debate re: Salisbury/Amesbury poisonings
Hello - there's currently a discussion at the talk page of the article 2018 Amesbury poisonings as to whether this should be merged with the Poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal article. Although I have my view as expressed in that discussion, I'm not here to canvass for that, but I do think it needs a few more eyes as at the moment there's no real progress or discussion towards a consensus. You can contribute to this at Talk:2018 Amesbury poisonings. --Super Nintendo Chalmers (talk) 09:52, 20 September 2018 (UTC)

Request for information on WP1.0 web tool
Hello and greetings from the maintainers of the WP 1.0 Bot! As you may or may not know, we are currently involved in an overhaul of the bot, in order to make it more modern and maintainable. As part of this process, we will be rewriting the web tool that is part of the project. You might have noticed this tool if you click through the links on the project assessment summary tables.

We'd like to collect information on how the current tool is used by....you! How do you yourself and the other maintainers of your project use the web tool? Which of its features do you need? How frequently do you use these features? And what features is the tool missing that would be useful to you? We have collected all of these questions at this Google form where you can leave your response. Walkerma (talk) 04:25, 27 October 2019 (UTC)

Tottenham House
Tottenham House, an article of interest to this project, has been redirected to Tottenham, Wiltshire, and the scope/focus changed from being just about the house, to being about the history of the families who owned the estate and house. I have started a discussion at Talk:Tottenham,_Wiltshire which people may wish to get involved in. SilkTork (talk) 13:29, 23 November 2019 (UTC)

Marlborough Mound
Hi there Wikiproject Wiltshire members,

I am a student in a digital writing class at the University of Sydney in Australia and part of our assessment this semester is to author what will hopefully become an article on the Wikipedia main space. The topic I chose was Marlborough Mound however as you will see it has been declined due to perceived overlap with the Marlborough Castle page.

Both my teacher and I believe there is enough original content on my draft page to warrant its own article as well as that this page was on WP:requestedarticles and there is limited overlap in the references I have used.

However, we thought it might be an idea to reach out to this Wikiproject and getting a sense of your perspective on this.

Thanks in advance. Johnphantom2643 (talk) 05:34, 31 May 2019 (UTC)
 * The information you have found will make a good addition to the encyclopedia. I support creating the Marlborough Mound article, and at the same time reducing the scope of Marlborough Castle to cover the 11th to 14th centuries, with the description of the site before & after the castle reduced to summaries. All three articles – Castle, Mound and Marlborough College — should have links to each other. -- Wire723 (talk) 13:25, 1 June 2019 (UTC)


 * the "requestedarticles" project seems to be infested by idiots and makes some terrible mistakes. If I were you, I should just go ahead and create the article. Or if you prefer, I'll do it for you and put a note on the talk page that up to that point it's your work. Please ping me here. Moonraker (talk) 21:26, 18 October 2019 (UTC)
 * NB,, I did create Marlborough Mound for you, so don’t worry about your draft having been deleted. Moonraker (talk) 09:20, 13 July 2020 (UTC)